Doc

When I hear people talk in such hateful words about the police, the first thing that comes to mind is a question of what kinds of lawless scumbags they are. That kind of talk is usually somebody who has frequently tested the limits of the law and have had more than their share of run-ins with law enforcement that they came out on the losing end of. I really have no use for people with anti-law attitudes and an irrational hatred with those people charged with enforcing law and order.

First of all, I think it is important to separate "hunting skills" from "killing skills" if you are going to try to define what it takes to become a better hunter. One involves woods-lore, knowledge of prey, ability to reason and analyze, and a whole bunch of personal disciplines. The other involves marksmanship and weapons skills. We can develop proficiencies in one or the other or both, but the "better hunter" is not necessarily the one with the most pounds of venison, or the one with some large artificially established scoring system of antler measurements designed for competitive scoring among hunters. To me, I am a "better hunter" if I can consistently use an ever increasing base of knowledge to overcome all the natural instincts and senses of my prey. What I decide to do after that success gets more into "better results" as determined by myself. Personally when I am trying to assess my hunting success, I try to keep it reduced to a competition between myself and the animal. I have no real interest in competition between me and other people. So when I talk about being a "better hunter", it all involves only the interaction between myself and the prey animal and how those abilities improve over the years. Scores and point counts and such are not a part of my determination of hunting ability and whether or not I am progressing or becoming a better hunter. Each actual hunting experience determines that whether a shot is taken or not.

For me, the sling is an integral part of every rifle and shotgun that I own. Once it is on there, I can see no reason to ever take it off except for gun cleaning on a couple of guns where that makes cleaning easier. Removing it while hunting would just make one more forgotten thing to have to back and retrieve.

You can do whatever you want with gun season length, but in our area it won't make any significant difference in deer take. Once we get by the opening weekend, the shooting dwindles down to less than you would hear during the small-game season. The state parking lots empty out, and things get so quiet that it is difficult to tell there is a deer season in progress. During the last week of gun season, I noted that there were deer grazing in broad daylight out in the middle of a couple of fields down by us. I believe that there is absolutely no game management reason to add any days to gun season. As far as filling some pressing need for hunters, or becoming some significant harvest time for over-populated areas, I think that anyone pushing for longer gun seasons is barking up the wrong tree.

I hear more talk about reducing gun season. I haven't really heard anything about extending it. I think the time really would simply be wasted since almost all of the hunters call it quits after the opening weekend. Everybody wants to play with seasons as if that is really accomplishing something.

I've got a basement that looks like a hoarder lives here. Fixing that is right at the top of the list once we get the holidays behind us. The problem is that most of it is still-working equipment that I paid a lot of dollars for, and most of it still gets used occasionally.

Frankly, this kind of weather will never tempt me to go out there. Even still-hunting where you are moving around a bit would be challenging to put up with. No deer is worth the pain and anguish of that kind of torture. For quite a few years now, I have successfully reminded myself that my deer hunting is meant to be recreation. It is supposed to be "fun". Sitting there watching my skin freeze is not fun....lol. No one in this household is counting on venison for sustenance. When the day comes that I need venison for survival, maybe then I will re-set the goals and ground rules.

I have also heard that it means a heart shot.

Kind of like cheating at solitaire. What's the point?

I guess I have always taken the biggest deer when given a choice. But I guess when you think of it, the older does are the one that are more likely to be bred. They are also the one that are most likely to survive a hard winter. So if you are trying to reduce the herd as the DEC is trying to do in our area, the best way to achieve that should be to shoot the older more successful breeders. If the herd is in need of expanded numbers, shoot neither, or shoot the younger antlerless deer. Or you can do like I do and shoot whichever offers the best high percentage shot......lol.

Far better to rely on a government commune to take care of you, isn't it comrade?

Quote: “We remind all hunters to remember safety first,” Sheriff Thomas J. Dougherty said in a statement. “We do not call these accidents because these types of incidents are preventable by hunting safely and following the rules of mandatory hunter safety principles.” I wonder if that means that this fatality will not show up in the DEC tallies of hunting accidents? What do you think?

Yeah, it is a universally accepted, industry adopted, country-wide, version of age discrimination. Experience is now viewed as engrained obsolescence instead of a foundation for forward progress. Basically it amounts to an accumulation of periodic raises that gets you to be a very expensive commodity that tends to become mired in old tried and true technology. I'm sure their decisions to frequently turn over their employee base is founded on many great studies, and frankly I'm not sure their conclusions are completely wrong. If they can get eager, hungry, youngsters to do the same job a hell of a lot cheaper, the bottom line probably always turns out looking better. Being stripped of the blinders of experience does tend to force new processes and thinking. The idea is to develop a work force that is highly competitive and more pliant and frankly more scared for their jobs and absolutely frantic to appear busier and more productive. They want a work force that is fluid and mobile and cheap. Corporate loyalty? ...... Doesn't exist anymore. Not for the company or the individual. There is no such thing as joining a company at a young age, and retiring after a bunch of years from that same company. That all breeds complacency and entrenchment. It is a harsh reality for this transition generation of older folks. Slowly but surely all the older folks with the older expectations are being weeded out and passing on. Soon companies will be staffed with younger people who expect to be replaced frequently and maybe even like it that way.

I am so thankful that we have good ol' Uptown Redface to continue the post election euphoria. Did you ever hear so much whining and whimpering from a lib. Every day he constantly provides more crying, sniffling, and stomping and loud, sloppy, thumb-sucking to entertain us with. Ha-ha-ha .... he has completely lost his mind and comes on here every day to demonstrate that for us. Ha-ha-ha ..... It is hilarious, but there unfortunately is a pathetic side to it all that does offer up a little pity. The good news is that the pity doesn't last very long.

Prime rib? ........... Another of my favorites. I'll tell you that as a group, we hunters sure know how to eat!

Nothing said can ever ease the pain of losing a loved one. I am of an age where I have watched much of my family and nearly all of my old friends pass. It is never easy, but being granted the grace of dying suddenly doing an activity that filled most of his life with peace and passion was a special gift. I have known so many who were not blessed with that kind of merciful departure.

Don't forget all the fancy bread ..... Italian, Rye, pumpernickel ..... and real butter. Yeah real butter is bad for you, but it's only one meal. Hey! I like the idea of French onion soup ..... one of my favorites until I burn the hell out of my mouth when the molten cheese sticks to my lip. Let's hear a bit more about those desserts. Anyone up for one of those 8" high carrot cakes with whatever that great frosting is that they put on those?

Sounds like a good opportunity to sharpen up your still-hunting skills. Dress in all kind of layers and seek out sheltered areas. Unlike a bow, with muzzleloaders and crossbows, you don't have to worry about bulky clothing disturbing your shooting, so you can put on as much as you think you might need. The slight, slow movement of still hunting will help keep you warm. Most likely you will have the woods all to yourself.

There is no excuse for pointing any gun at anyone (or making excuses for anyone else doing so), regardless of what assumptions you may be making about how disabled and unloaded the gun may be. As I said before, gun safety should be used without even thinking about it. If that part of a persons hunter training safety course didn't take, there is nothing wrong with it being reinforced when someone is not paying attention to a safety rule so damned basic.

You are assuming that the gun was not loaded. That was not stated as a fact nor was anyone at the time in a position to determine that. I think given the situation as it was explained here, only a complete idiot would go up against an irrational acting, armed woman walking through a store (any store) screaming obscenities. Perhaps it would take an even bigger idiot to stand there giggling at the situation and considering it "entertainment". Don't confuse prudent care and forethought for cowardice. But anyway, what are you suggesting? ....... that someone should have instantly wrestled her to the floor and ripped the gun from her hands to prove their toughness? The only thing being proven would be how to be escorted to the police car in handcuffs, charged with assault. I think you may have missed the point of what people were talking about when it comes to the idea of "defending self, family and the country". Now relative to when to call the cops, and whether any laws were being broken, I believe that it is not our place to decide what is legal and what is not. My thought is that a call should have been made describing the whacked-out actions and demeanor of the woman waving a gun and acting a bit bizarre inside a store full of people so that the proper authorities can decide whether their attention and action or investigation is warranted. Give them the details of what is going on, and let them worry about what to do about it.

Saw one sitting in one of the blue heron nests a bunch of years back in the town of Bristol in Ontario County While a bunch of herons flew around making a heck of racket. It was likely dining on eggs or heron chicks.

Sometimes I think you post just to get attention. No...... actually I'm sure of it. There is no way that you could possibly think that gun safety has right places and wrong places to be practiced. If gun safety is not second nature and practiced as a trained-in behavior then obviously the hunter safety training didn't take. I wouldn't tolerate that kind of irresponsible gun handling for a second without strongly objecting. And then to be absolutely ok with a member of your own family having the muzzle of a gun waved in her face ..... well, what can be said about that? This is a store with both the guns and the ammo there in the same place. Why would any sane person think that that is a time or place to throw gun safety rules out the window. Sometimes I wonder why the gun accidents are not higher in number with some of the attitudes of contempt for safety that are out there. And as for the first paragraph, what you are mistaking for "entertainment" is really morbid curiosity. These days, that isn't really all that brilliant a reaction when someone comes marching into a store waving a gun and shouting obscenities.

If it takes an expert to tell the difference, the effort is wasted on me. I have had "un-aged" venison, "properly aged" venison (by a professional), and "improperly aged" venison. It all tasted the same to me except for one of those categories.....and guess which one that was. Damn that stuff was rank and even at the risk of offending my host, I left the rest of it on the plate to be thrown away. In his attempt to "age" the meat, he might as well have just taken it to the dump. So my recommendation, if you don't know what you are doing, turn that critter into little frozen packages as quickly as you possibly can and forget you ever heard the term "aging". I'm sure there are beneficial differences or slaughterhouses and professional butchers wouldn't bother doing it with beef and such. But I am also convinced that there are a lot of people who claim they are aging the meat and all they are doing is turning it into foul-tasting, half rotted, meat that every dog in the neighborhood wishes they could roll in.

Anybody have any idea what the actual tally is for this year so far?

Somebody want to tell me about wild boar meat? I have heard all different kinds of opinions, but the majority of what I have heard is that it is not very good. By the way, I didn't mention above, but we did get a very tasty moose from Ontario Canada a bunch of years ago that would rival some of the better beef.